Fully Charged: Halo on iPhone, Cyanogen aligns with Microsoft, and GTA5 in VR

Halo games come to iPhone and iPad

Microsoft’s Halo? On Apple devices? Say it isn’t so! If you had any doubts about Microsoft’s new and rapidly-expanding multiplatform software initiative, let this quell any skepticism. Indeed, Microsoft has released a pair of Halo games for iOS, but they’re top-down shooters rather than the traditional first-person entries on consoles and PC.

Halo: Spartan Assault was first released a couple years back on Windows Phone and Windows tablets and PCs before expanding to Xbox consoles, and now it’s also on iOS. But Halo: Spartan Strike is a totally new sequel, out today for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 in addition to iOS and Steam. Each game is ₹370 on the App Store, and there’s a bundle of both for ₹620.

Cyanogen OS partners with Microsoft

Cyanogen is trying to break Android away from Google control with its version of the open-source mobile OS, and it intends to do so in the future by replacing Google apps and services with third-party options. And now we know that Microsoft plans to play a big role in that quest.

The companies announced a partnership today that sees a big bundle of Microsoft apps - like Bing, Skype, OneDrive, Outlook, and Office - put on phones carrying Cyanogen OS later this year. Microsoft will “create native integrations” as part of the arrangement, meaning it sounds like the company’s myriad apps and services will truly take the place of Google’s.

From that perspective, Microsoft bringing its many apps to Android via the Play Store seems more like a tryout than anything, although Cyanogen has a massive hill to climb if it’s truly going to take any market share away from the Google version of Android.

See GTA5 running in the Oculus Rift

Besides the 4K support and amazing-looking video editor, the best part of Grand Theft Auto V finally launching on PC this week may be all of the great modifications that’ll be coming down the pipeline. And here’s a big one to start: Grand Theft Auto V is now working with the Oculus Rift via vorpX, a programme that converts traditional PC games into VR-compatible ones. Looks pretty good for an unofficial fix on a massive open-world game!